Forest Fire Emergency Appeal

​This week, a high state of emergency has been declared in West Borneo and the threat of forests being burnt to the ground is imminent once again.

Last summer, the situation in Borneo was disastrous. Forest fires destroyed five million acres of Indonesian forest and countless orangutans were left to starve and die. Our team were busier than ever and more than 60 orangutans were rescued and in need of urgent treatment and care.

Without our help these orangutans would have died. This year, as the fires return, we are preparing once again to deal with the horrors that lie ahead.

We can't control the outbreak of fires in the forest, but with your support we can be ready to rescue and protect the orangutans that live there.

Funds are needed for the following:

Portable fire fighting equipment - The location of the fires is largely inaccessible to road vehicles and so our team relies on portable water pumps and sprayers.

Manpower - Local People need to be recruited who are familiar with the area to watch over orangutans that are at risk from the fires.

Veterinary team - There is also a need to increase the capacity of the veterinary team in order to provide medical care to sick, injured or starving orangutans. With so much of their natural habitat destroyed, the orangutans are at serious risk of starvation or competition with other orangutans over food and territory.

Treatment and care for the extra orangutans arriving at the centre - When the forest fires begin, more and more orangutans will be rescued by our team and brought to our centre for emergency treatment and care. This will increase the demand for resources such as medicine, food and staff.

Reforestation – Forest fires last year destroyed 30% of orangutan habitat, now the fires are imminent once again, we fear more forest will be lost. We are already making plans to reforest areas destroyed last year and now need to protect as much forest as we can from further damage.

Last year our dedicated team risked their own lives to save as many orangutans as possible.

NB: We are extremely grateful to everyone who has volunteered their time to help fight the fires. However our most pressing need is to recruit more permanent members of staff to our team from the local community who are familiar with the area and prepared to make a long-term commitment to our work